North Star with Ellin Bessner

On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, Gloria and Howard Wener woke up to the sound of rockets and an air raid warning. The Canadian couple immigrated to Israel 50 years ago as pioneers of Sde Nitzan, a moshav of 500 people, less than 10 km from the Gaza border. Now, two days into Israel’s latest war with the Hamas-controlled region, the Weners remain locked inside their home, angry and disillusioned. The couple has found themselves living near the frontlines of the most lethal attack in recent Israeli history. The surprise invasion by Hamas breached the Israeli border by land, sea and air into Israel’s southwestern towns and communities, killing (as of publication on Oct. 8) more than 600 Israeli people and wounding 2,000 Israelis. At least 100 people, mostly Israelis, have been kidnapped and are being held hostage. For now, the Weners are under orders to remain in lockdown, or even evacuate their home, while Hamas terrorists still roam their Eshkol Regional Council zone. Some of the Weners friends and neighbours have been killed or kidnapped. The Canadian couple is “fuming” and “disappointed” over the colossal inteIligence failure by the Israeli army, which didn’t see the attack coming and took hours to respond. They join The CJN Daily‘s host, Ellin Bessner, from their home on the front lines. What we talked about Read the warnings from Global Affairs Canada about travel in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Register with the Canadian government if you are in Israel Learn more about the Sde Nitzan moshav in The CJN archives (from 2008) Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

A century after Chicago 58 Food Products’ late founder, David Bernholtz, borrowed $500 dollars to open a kosher butcher shop in Toronto’s Kensington Market, his grandchildren—and great-grandson—are still running the business. Chicago 58 threw a 100th anniversary barbecue for suppliers and customers last week, complete with fresh hot dogs and steaming brisket sandwiches on rye. For 80 years, the Chicago 58 all-beef salamis, Lanky Franky hot dogs and beef pastramis were made with the founder’s secret old-world recipes at the company’s original factory on Lippincott Street. Diners could find them at famous Ontario delis, including Pancer’s, Shopsy’s and even The Pickle Barrel. But by the 2000s, new health rules—plus family disputes and union issues—convinced the Bernholtzes that it was time to leave the aging warren of rooms in the historic Jewish neighbourhood. In 2005 they moved to a modern industrial building in the northwest Toronto suburb of Woodbridge. Today, Chicago 58 no longer makes their own meat and deli products in-house. They contract it out. And they have expanded into distributing other food lines, too, like lasagna, cheese, coffee, tuna and even bacon, supplying restaurants and grocery chains like Farm Boy, Metro, Sobeys Longos and Loblaws. Now, on the company’s centennial, the family is working to preserve the founders’ old-fashioned ways of doing business, while adapting to modern customers’ eating habits. The CJN Daily‘s Ellin Bessner visited the warehouse to speak to current president Teddy Bernholtz, a grandson of the founder, and also to Yittie Starkman, his aunt, aged 96 and a half, who worked at her father’s plant for decades. What we talked about Read more about Chicago 58’s story and watch a documentary video on the history of the company Is the deli dying? Read more in The CJN (from 2009) The owner of Vancouver’s Omnitsky Kosher Deli is looking to close or sell, on The CJN Daily Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

As the fallout continues from the Canadian Parliament applauding a 98-year-old former member of a Nazi-led Ukrainian Waffen SS unit, the spotlight is focusing on how the former soldier Yaroslav Hunka and thousands of other enemy troops like him, were permitted to come to Canada in the first place. For decades, Jewish groups have been calling on the Canadian government to release the complete files from the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada—known as the Deschênes Commission—which, from 1985 to 1986, looked into how many Nazi war criminals were here and what Canada could do about it. While the final report led to a few (mostly unsuccessful) prosecutions, much of the detailed information, including the names and cases of hundreds of other suspects, was never released. The papers are held by Library and Archives Canada, the Department of Justice and the RCMP. Now, however, some are hoping the international public embarrassment might convince the federal government to finally reckon with Canada’s past and release all these historic files. On The CJN Daily, we meet the main Canadian historian, Alti Rodal, who worked for the Deschênes Commission nearly 40 years ago. Then we speak to David Matas, B’nai Brith’s senior legal counsel, who intervened in those hearings in 1985 and continues to lobby for the full records to be made public. What we talked about Why Edmonton’s Jewish community wants two monuments honouring Ukrainian Nazi soldiers finally taken down, in The CJN Read the B’nai Brith Canada brief to Parliament on why Canada should release the Deschênes Commission documents in full and read the Canadian government’s update (1998) on names of suspected war criminals and what happened to their cases What the political fallout will be on Canada’s “blunder” to give two standing ovations to a former Ukrainian soldier in the Waffen SS’s 14th Division, on The CJN Daily Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

Artur Wilczynski has choice words to describe what happened in the Canadian House of Commons on Sept. 22, when lawmakers gave two standing ovations to a 98-year-old former Ukrainian solider who served with a Nazi unit during the Second World War. Wilczynski, a former diplomat and senior civil servant in Ottawa—and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor—calls the scandal an “absolute public relations disaster for Canada.” Wilczynski was stunned as he watched the incident unfold during Friday’s official ceremony in the House to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Canada. After the leader of the war-torn country made his formal speech, the Speaker of the House, Anthony Rota, recognized the presence of Yaroslav Hunka in the public gallery. Rota called Hunka, who lives in Rota’s riding of North Bay, a Canadian hero—but it soon was discovered that, in fact, he had actually fought for the Nazis and against the Russians, as part of a notorious Waffen-SS unit known for massacring Jews during the Holocaust and committing atrocities against Polish civilians. The Speaker has since announced his resignation, effective Wednesday night. But observers, including Wilczynski, say the damage will have long-lasting repercussions on Canada, NATO and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Wilczynski joins The CJN Daily to unpack how such a failure in protocol could have happened—and what Canada needs to do to fix things. What we talked about Read CJN editor Lila Sarick’s interviews with Jewish Canadian leaders about Speaker Anthony Rota resigning, in The CJN Why the Canadian government’s poor record of prosecuting Nazi war criminals is considered a failure by Jewish groups, in The CJN (from 2017) Why this Nazi hunter called Helmut Oberlander’s peaceful death in his Waterloo, Ont., home in 2021 a disgrace, on The CJN Daily What we talked about Read Lila Sarick’s interviews with Jewish Canadian leaders about House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota resigning over the Ukrainian former Nazi SS war criminal he personally invited as his guest to Parliament last week, in The CJN. Why the Canadian government’s poor record of prosecuting Nazi war criminals is considered a failure by Jewish groups, in The CJN. Why this Nazi hunter called the death of Helmut Oberlander in his Waterloo, Ont. home in 2021 a disgrace, on The CJN Daily. Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

On Sept. 26, Temple Sholom in Vancouver is hosting two of the leaders of Israel's months-long protests: Jerusalem professor Michal Muszkat-Barkan and Ora Peled Nakash, a computer engineer who lives on a kibbutz outside Haifa. The pair will speak about their grassroots efforts these past nine months to stop the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. The two women are being flown in on the invitation of progressive Jewish groups including JSpace Canada, ARZA, the New Israel Fund, UnXeptable and the America-Israel Democracy Coalition. This is the first time anyone from the self-described pro-democracy protests (which have attracted hundreds of thousands of people every weekend for the past nine months) has made the journey to Canada to drum up support from the world's third-largest Diaspora community. They're also speaking the next day in Seattle before heading home for Sukkot. On The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Muszkat-Barkan and Peled Nakash about why they are coming to Canada—and then we catch up with Joan Garson, of Toronto, active in a wide range of local and international Reform and other Jewish organizations. She travelled to New York to protest against Netanyahu while the Israeli leader was speaking at the United Nations a few days ago. What we talked about Learn more about the Jerusalem-based protest group “Safeguarding our Shared Home”, which broadcasts its weekly demonstrations from outside the president’s residence every Saturday night live on Facebook Register to attend the event in person in Vancouver or watch the event live on Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. PST on Temple Sholom’s website Join the Safeguarding our Shared Home WhatsApp group for English speakers Read more about UnXeptable’s Canadian chapters: the pro-democracy organization was formed by expatriate Israelis, in The CJN Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer.Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Last Monday, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board voted to determine if trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth breached the board’s code of conduct by sending a series of arguably bullying text messages to another trustee in trying to garner allies as she attempted to reinstate a mask mandate in Ottawa schools. In her messages, Kaplan-Myrth wrote that trustees opposing her motion didn't care "if Black and Indigenous children get sick… If children in poverty get sick… If children with disabilities and immunocompromised family members can’t safely go to school." She later implored her colleague to not "vote with white supremacists." The chaotic special meeting devolved into a shouting match before the final tally, when the motion failed by a single vote. In response to the debacle, The CJN's political columnist Josh Leiblein wrote a piece criticizing Kaplan-Myrth—and she responded to our publication with a lengthy three-page rebuttal. We share a bit of her response in this re-airing of our conversation with Kaplan-Myrth from May 2021. With her name back in the news—and with COVID season starting up again—we wanted to revisit this interview, recorded during her rise to prominence as an outspoken proponent of masking, back when she was hosting large-scale vaccination events known as "jabapaloozas". Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

Many Jews around the world will be reciting the Yizkor memorial prayer as Yom Kippur approaches this weekend. And while most synagogues maintain traditional memorial wall displays, with columns of bronze or brass yahrzeit plaques, a growing number of Jewish congregations in North America and even Europe are embracing new technology and replacing the hardware with interactive digital memorials. Not only can you put longer, fuller biographies and photos on the digital memorial, but they can be also be accessed from anywhere in the world, even on your phone. It’s a modern solution for synagogues that are merging, as well as for others that are running out of wall space. And, yes, you can set the memorial so it will not violate the ban on using technology during Shabbat and holy days. Beit Rayim Synagogue and School in Vaughan, Ont., is the latest shul in Canada to install a digital kiosk, although Ottawa's Kehillat Beth Israel has had a digital display for several years, as has Winnipeg's Shaarey Zedek. Now other congregations in Toronto and Montreal are considering the concept. Already some 65 congregations in the United States have installed them. On today’s The CJN Daily, Beit Rayim’s vice president, Lorraine Bloom, joins host Ellin Bessner, along with Heshy Spira, a partner with the W and E Baum company based in New Jersey, which makes the machines. What we talked about Learn more about the digital yahrzeit memorial kiosk at Beit Rayim Synagogue and School in Vaughan, Ont_._ See more styles of digital yahrzeit memorial boards installed in the United States at the W&EBaum company website and the Winnipeg-based company which also sells them, Plannedlegacy.com Hear about putting QR codes on gravestones, and other future technological trends in the funeral business, on The CJN Daily Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

This weekend, Atlantic Canada is preparing to get slammed by Hurricane Lee, a Category 1 hurricane that could blast winds as strong as 110 km/h across parts of the country. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are on especially high alert in the storm's path, with residents preparing for worst-case scenarios: power outages, storm surges, flooding and property damage. This is the second year in a row that Maritime Jews are finding their new year celebrations threatened by a lethal storm. This same time last year, community members across Nova Scotia were all set for Rosh Hashanah when Hurricane Fiona smashed into the coast, blowing winds of up to 170 km/hr and dumping seven inches of rain across the region. The community was left without power, light, refrigeration or heat. In the aftermath of the natural disaster, The CJN Daily spoke with Shayna Strong, a Jewish community member in New Waterford, just northeast of Sydney, Nova Scotia. Strong explained how they managed to celebrate Rosh Hashanah despite the hardship. With a near-identical situation facing Atlantic Jews this weekend, we're re-airing our interview with Strong, which originally ran in September 2022. Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

September 10 was a milestone day at the Donald Berman Jewish Eldercare Centre in Montreal: the staff threw the organization's annual group birthday party for a record number of residents over 100 years old. This year’s 22 “super seniors” include a Second World War veteran, David Kucer, who worked forging metal miniature weapons as collectors items, and also Bella Bernstein, the oldest of the group. At 104, she is a renowned former soprano who performed opera and Jewish music across the community. But it wasn't all smiles and birthday cake. Originally, there were supposed to be 23 seniors to celebrate—until, sadly, one passed away just a few days earlier. To learn the secret of living a long life, we turned to the experts. On The CJN Daily, the 104-year-old Bernstein joins host Ellin Bessner, along with Bernstein's daughter Harriet Segal and the home's recreation coordinator, Josie di Benedetto. What we talked about Read how COVID-19 decimated the Jewish long-term care homes in Montreal in The CJN Read about Cecile Klein, z”l, who was Canada’s oldest person at 114, until her death, in The CJN Learn about Rabbi Erwin Schild, who marked his 103rd birthday recently in Toronto, in The CJN Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer.Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

This summer, Canadian housing minister Sean Fraser blamed Canada's housing crisis, in part, on post-secondary institutions bringing in unregulated and record-high numbers of international students. This could cause the rental market to skyrocket in urban areas; on the flip side, the number of newcomer students has also created a swell of illegal rooming houses, even fostering homelessness among international students, who lack credit checks and Canadian references to find housing in the first place. Fraser is not alone in pinpointing non-Canadians in this debate. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly called out the rising number of newcomers for his province’s housing crisis, using it as justification for his (now scandal-ridden) Greenbelt land swap plan, whose entire purpose was to help build 500,000 new homes by 2025. And in the broader public eye, Nanos conducted a recent poll for CTV News on the subject, finding that roughly three in five Canadians support decreasing the number of immigrants coming into the country until housing becomes more affordable. A rising fears of immigrants, rootless cosmopolitans and foreign influences undermining Canadian livelihoods have not historically been good for the Jews. But there could be some Jewish players who help solve the puzzle. Today on The CJN Daily, producer Zac Kauffman speaks with Noam Dolgin, who co-founded CoHo BC, which "hacks" the housing market by matchmaking strangers to pool their money to buy a home. He explains how this kind of unorthodox thinking could be one key piece in solving the country's housing crisis. Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and our theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.